C# Application from Inspiration to Implementation

Rating:
Summary: Someone needs to do a recall
Review: As mentionned in one of the other reviews of this book - parts of the book are missing! In my copy in the middle of Chapter 4 the it skips to a Chapter 2 of some other Wrox book. I returned the book the day I bought it.

Rating:
Summary: Incomplete Book
Review: I purchased this book to use as a guide for installing MSDE with my current project. The author talks of using his setup project and even explains how to modify it in chapter 12. The only problem is he does not supply any code example. Neither printed code nor a download is available for chapter 12 that gives you everything he talks about. He talks about 8 additional projects that are needed for the book. In Chapter 12 on page 306,
he states and I quote "There are several other projects included in the LazyMan Inventory that we will not have space to detail in this book. The complete solution is available for download, and here is a brief synopsis of each project." I have not been able to acquire this solution nor have I been able to contact anyone. I talked to the publisher WROX and they stated they would have the author handle this problem. But now that will not be done because WROX has gone out business or is being acquired by Wiley Publishing. He constantly refers to all of these projects but does not make them available. So in short I can not recommend this book because it is not complete and the author has not followed thru on promises made in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad at all all -- if you have a good copy...
Review: I was fortunate to get a "good" copy of this book - i.e., without all these printing horrors so vividly described by other frustrated reviewers (missing chapters, wrong pages, inserts from another book on Apache server, etc.) - and have found it very useful.

I think this book could have a great value for someone, who has some programming experience with a fragmented "academic" knowledge on .NET, but has not had much of "real life" experience on developing and implementing desktop .NET applications. In my opinion, the author does keep his promise - to show "the entire process of desktop software construction from design to delivery". Also, I have found a number of useful little tips (e.g., on organizing your code and its documentation, enhancing GUI with self-made custom icons, etc.) - of course, nothing "revolutionary" or "mind-blowing" - everything can found in other books or in on-line tutorials...

Chapter 8: "Custom Controls" - in my opinion - is almost excellent and could be very helpful for a novice developer like myself: unlike in so many other books, both custom control examples presented by the author have some "real life" value and contain a few lines a rather not trivial code.

Provided that you have a GOOD copy of this book, it could be a nice reading -- for someone who wants to get a quick overview on using VS .NET -- over a weekend or within just a few days.


Rating:
Summary: a 1 star rating, and you made a big liar out of me!!
Review: Picked up on Joe's and the N.C reader, I would have given it 1/2 star if only the rating system goes that low.

Can't imagine that neither the author, nor editor, or anyone else involved in producing this book didn't realize how bad a job they'd done. Like the N.C reviewer said, Chapter 4 started on page 49 on "Constructing the database", then suddenly page 51 starts Chapter 2 and goes on to page 74 about Apache server. Then out of the blue, the next page is numbered 83 talking about XML with the title 'Coding the application' on the page header.
From the summary of contents:
Chapter 4 'Contructing the Database' page 49,
Chapter 5 'Preparing the Design Specification' page 63
Chapter 6 'Coding the Application' page 77.
That means 3 out of 12 chapters are all/partly missing from the book.
On page 3, credits were mentioned with 11 Technical Reviewers, 5 different editors, and Proofreader, Indexer, Production Coordinator and Project Manager. With over 20 names mentioned, and no one caught these "IN YOUR FACE" errors before it went to press is beyond comprehension. Sadly, the author's name went down with this book.